AirMDR Raises $15.5M to Democratize AI-Powered Threat Detection for the Underserved Enterprise

In a cybersecurity industry long dominated by slow-moving services and eye-watering enterprise price tags, a new breed of AI-native players is reshaping the rules of engagement. AirMDR, a rising name in Managed Detection and Response (MDR), just closed a $15.5 million seed round—$10.5 million of which is fresh capital—to fuel its mission: bringing Fortune 500-grade security operations to the frontlines of the mid-market.

Backed by Race Capital, Foundation Capital, and Storm Ventures, the round comes as AirMDR's AI-powered Security Operations Center (SOC) gains momentum across SMB and enterprise sectors alike. With its hybrid model combining autonomous AI “analysts” with round-the-clock human oversight, AirMDR aims to close a critical gap in modern threat detection—where legacy MDRs and MSSPs have struggled to serve smaller, budget-constrained organizations with the precision and speed they need.

“For the last 25 years, in leadership, founding, and CEO positions at companies like ArcSight, Sumo Logic, and LogicHub, I saw how expensive high-quality Detection and Response was,” said Kumar Saurabh, CEO of AirMDR. “Our mission at AirMDR is to bring Fortune 500 quality SOC to every enterprise at an affordable price.”

That promise appears to be resonating. The company’s platform was just recognized at the 2025 Black Hat Startup Spotlight Competition, highlighting what insiders are calling a “second generation” of MDR—one that’s built AI-first, not bolted on after the fact.

AirMDR’s tech stack includes fully autonomous alert triage, natural language AI interactions, real-time threat containment, and over 200 plug-and-play integrations—removing traditional onboarding friction and offering immediate time-to-value. For customers like automation platform Workato, the difference is more than technical.

“AirMDR has significantly accelerated our time to value—we were able to quickly integrate with our systems and deploy automation playbooks with minimal overhead,” said Hans Gustavson, CISO of Workato. “Today, AirMDR is triaging nearly 80% of our security findings, allowing our SOC team to stay focused on the most critical threats.”

Unlike conventional MDRs that rely heavily on human-led triage—often bogged down in ticket queues and manual workflows—AirMDR leads with automation and uses its human analysts as a quality assurance layer. It’s a model that not only lowers operational costs, but also redefines scalability for a $5B market expected to double by the end of next year.

“We are delighted to place our faith in AirMDR for their innovative AI-powered MDR service that we believe will be a core solution for the $5B MDR market moving forward,” said Sid Trivedi, Partner at Foundation Capital. “AirMDR’s AI SOC will lower costs, improve cybersecurity, and contribute to a rapidly expanding market.”

Analysts watching the space agree. “We’re at the tipping point of a major transformation in security operations,” said David Gruber, Principal Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “AI-native MDRs aren’t just improving analyst efficiency; they’re materially reshaping the economics and scalability of threat detection and response for SMBs.”

While the field is heating up with AI-powered security startups, AirMDR has a pedigree that sets it apart. CTO Srikant Vissamsetti helped build IntruVert and Attivo Networks—names well known in network and identity detection—and CEO Saurabh’s fingerprints are all over the first cloud SIEM (Sumo Logic) and security automation at LogicHub.

That legacy is now turning into real-world traction. With early deployments across multiple enterprise environments and a growing pipeline, AirMDR is looking to scale aggressively. The newly raised funds will expand its sales and marketing engine, refine its AI stack, and deepen R&D efforts around its AI analyst core.

For investors like Alfred Chuang of Race Capital, the bet is as much on the founding team as it is on the tech. “We strongly believe that investing in early-stage technology companies is all about the people and founders who lead these companies,” he said. “Kumar Saurabh, through his leadership experience, is one of those relentless founders we look to support.”

As threat actors grow more sophisticated and the cybersecurity talent gap continues to widen, AirMDR’s approach—blending speed, transparency, and affordability—may offer a new blueprint for modern SOCs. Whether it’s an SMB getting its first serious detection program off the ground, or an enterprise looking to boost efficiency without burning out staff, AI-powered MDR may finally be ready for prime time.